Adam Hearlson
Eerdmans, 192 pages
A thought occurred to me about 30 pages into “The Holy No.” What if Jesus Christ is just waiting for all the endowment funds to dry up before coming back? What if everything we’ve done to preserve the church as we’ve known it since Constantine – as an institution instead of a movement – is keeping God’s new heaven and new earth from coming about? It’s an uncomfortable thought and one never directly raised by Adam Hearlson in his book, but a vital question for those of us out here trying to do church. Why is the institutional church still valuable and how is it doing God’s work in the world?
I wouldn’t say that inspiring questions like these is exactly Hearlson’s intention with this book, but when we’re talking about subversion, an author’s intentions are themselves an open question. The contents of this book, as the subtitle suggests, are indeed focused on worship. Preaching, performance, hospitality, music, liturgy, art: all topics you’ve … [Read more...]

Why am I writing about typewriters when you are supposed to write on them?
At least that is what people used to do in the bygone church offices of yore. They typed up bulletins and newsletters to be mimeographed. They typed out pages of membership rolls and added them to big leather-bound books. They typed out names, addresses and phone numbers on little cards and jammed them into their Rolodexes. My grandfather was a pastor and typed out all of his sermons on a Smith Corona with a script typeface that he put in little leatherette binders. My aunt still has the whole operation in her basement. Almost everything church-y and office-y happened on a typewriter. That’s the way it used to be. That’s the way it still is for me in a way.
I use a typewriter for almost all of the writing I do as a pastor. All of my sermons. All of my prayers. Notes of encouragement to parishioners. Working through new ideas. I do all of it on a typewriter. I have one in my office at church, a … [Read more...]

This week we asked our bloggers to reflect on their ordinations. Here are their blogs.
I can’t really remember my ordination vows. Not off the top of my head. Is that bad? I know how to look them up in the Book of Order. I haven’t in a while, but I could. My solemn vows should be written on my heart to guide me but they aren’t. There’s Clash lyrics there instead, I think. Oops.
I worried over those questions a lot in the days leading up to my ordination day. Can I say yes to these? Can I REALLY say yes to these? Can I just say yes, even if I’m not 100 percent sure, and have faith that God will work it out? Or is that dishonest? Do I have theological scruples that I need to state? Am I actually an Episcopalian? Am I really ready to be a pastor? Am I even still a Christian? What is life?
All of the questions. Too many questions.
Well, actually just nine questions. With footnotes. I looked them up. These are familiar now that I’m looking at them. I remember being … [Read more...]

This week we asked our bloggers what younger pastors are thinking about and what they think the rising generation of Presbyterian leaders sees different than previous generations. Here are their answers.
I had a very short-lived post-college music career. Well, “career” is a very generous term. Let’s call it a year of suspended disbelief and magical thinking. Instead of practicing hard and booking gigs, I played bass in a ska band with high school buddies, fervently hoping someone would start listening to ska music again. I imagined it was a job. It was not.
It felt like a job. It felt like it could be the future of something. It didn’t have any sustainability though. I lived with my parents the whole time and paid no bills. I spent more (of their money) on gas getting to gigs than I ever earned. My folks paid for all of it and it wasn’t really the future of anything. I don’t regret it because it made me decide to become an adult, which has become a choice these days. It … [Read more...]

This week we asked our bloggers to share a liturgy they’ve crafted.
Is it possible to just write liturgy for a living? I mean, I know that almost all pastors write liturgy as a part of their living, that’s cool, but would someone employ me and give me benefits and a pension to only write liturgy. I would do that job. I love writing liturgy because the people of God actually use your words when they speak and hear God. That’s a holy niche to fill, to be the one stringing words together with which other people will speak to the divine. It conjures up for me a vision of an ink-stained monk up in a dim garret somewhere scratching away with a quill on scraped vellum. I could get used to a dismal garret, I think, if it had a window in it.
But of course, locking yourself away in an attic is the worst way to write Spirit-filled language for people. You can’t hear the sound of their voices and the rhythm of their lives on the street if you’re shut up in your church. You have to go out and … [Read more...]

This week we asked our bloggers to describe a failure or difficulty encountered in ministry.
Failure is a zeitgeisty concept right now. Trending pieces and management philosophies call us to fail big, boldly and wisely. We look to our tech geniuses, the great disrupters of our chaotic cultural moment, and their failure-to-success narratives for enlightenment. Einstein, Edison, Jobs, Gates, these nerds all failed at basic life stuff (math, school, holding a job, dressing yourself) before becoming synonymous with intelligence and awesomeness like they are today. If failure isn’t exactly a good thing, is it a necessary thing?
Of course, we don’t value failure itself. We value success. No one is going to read your book about how big or bold you fell and never got up. In the bigger picture, it doesn’t matter if you are failing big or bold when you are stuck in the middle of failing. Feeling like a failure just sucks. Failure doesn’t feel good. The moment of failure isn’t full of new … [Read more...]